


not about reciprocation

by starkesthour



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Future Fic, M/M, i guess, silliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-18
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-25 08:54:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9812105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkesthour/pseuds/starkesthour
Summary: It started with the hickeys.





	

Mysterious hickeys have been showing up on Hinata's neck.

"They're hickeys," Kenma deadpans when Lev complains, and then absently keeps petting when Kuroo makes a huffy sound and presses his head harder against Kenma's leg demandingly. "I'm pretty sure even you know how they get there."

Lev concedes the point, but he's pretty sure Kenma doesn't get it – hickeys have to be put there by someone, but as far as he knows there is no someone. It is mysterious.

"So," Lev says the next day, throwing himself over the back of the couch.

"No," Hinata says.

"What?" Lev asks.

"No, I'm not telling you who I'm sleeping with," Hinata says.

Lev stares. He never actually believed Hinata had _psychic_ abilities, but–

"Kenma says you were bothering him about it," Hinata says, who has the gumption to roll his eyes and snort.

Eyeing him suspiciously, Lev thinks, _You are hot and those should be my hickeys_.

Hinata stares back at him, vaguely impatient.

No go, then. Lev purses his lips, leans forward and casually ruffles Hinata's hair, and then turns tail and runs.

"Why do you come in here," Kuroo says. "You're always in my room. It's weird."

"You're always in your room," Lev points out. Kuroo looks confused.

"Maybe because it's his room?" Hinata supplies helpfully.

"No eavesdropping!" Lev tells him, and shuts the door.

Kuroo still looks confused. "Wait, do you mean you're in here because I'm always in here?"

"Nope," Lev says. "So how bad would it be if I tried to get into Hinata's pants?"

Kuroo looks contemplative, which is why Kuroo is Lev's third-favorite friend. Kenma would've blinked at him, and blinked some more, and then he would've given Lev some speech about working things out by himself or something, and then the little bastard would've turned right around and reported the whole damn thing to Hinata, probably.

"Wouldn't be the end of the world," Kuroo finally decides. "Guess it’s been a long time coming too…"

Lev ignores the last part. "Would you help me then?"

"Help you what?" Kenma asks, opening the door at Lev's back. Then he sees Kuroo and there's a twitch of a smile, and Kuroo blinks back and grins, and Lev could probably strip naked and neither would notice unless he was trying to get naked with one of them.

He sighs, and exits so he can sit on the couch next to Hinata, nudging until Hinata sets aside his homework and opens their gaming system. They play _Destiny_ , and it almost distracts Lev, but the hickey is still there, faintly red, mocking him.

 

\--

 

So naturally, the next course of action is to see if he can catch Hinata when he's with this – person.

"Isn't your class in the opposite direction of mine?" Hinata asks between chews of his protein bar, when Lev trails him out the next morning.

This is not so rude as it might first seem. Lev tends to wake up in the morning feeling like the living dead, and he pretty much functions by following Hinata around like a creepy little mirroring-stalker thing. Hinata has a great but loud morning routine – everything from coffee to food to teeth-brushing, plus pants – so as long as Lev mimics Hinata he usually leaves the dorm looking a little less like a zombie.

Drawback being, of course, that sometimes Hinata has to take his shoulders, turn him around, and shove him off in the right direction so Lev doesn't keep following him, but whatever, nothing's perfect.

"Right," Lev says, and turns around obediently. “See ya later!”

There will obviously need to be greater measures taken in this following business.

 

\--

 

"Ugh," Lev tells Kuroo.

Kuroo sort of glances over at him from behind his laptop. Lev appreciates the effort.

"I don't know Hinata's schedule!" Lev says. "I can't follow him in the morning because we leave at the same time! And I don't know his schedule so I can't stalk him during the day!"

"Lev," Kuroo starts.

"No, I'm not going to rifle through his things and copy it," Lev says irritably. "That would be cheating."

"You want to get his schedule fairly so you can follow him like a mildly disturbed stalker," Kuroo says. He sort of glances over again.

"Well yeah," Lev says.

"Okay," Kuroo says. Lev's glad Kuroo gets it - he should, of course, considering the measures he went to in order to get Kenma to even notice him in a romantic sense. Conventional logic doesn't factor into these things anywhere - the cause is much too great to quibble over foibles.

"Shorty," Kuroo says, leaning over and staring blindly at the door like Hinata will appear. Hinata does, actually, sticking his head out of their bedroom to stare back at Kuroo. Lev would be worried Hinata heard them, but Hinata looks way too calm.

"Kuroo-san?" Hinata says.

"Kenma wants to know your schedule." Kuroo sort of asks.

"I can e-mail him a copy," Hinata offers, shrugging.

"Thanks," Kuroo says, and sits back in his chair.

"You are a genius," Lev says fervently.

"And you're in Kenma's spot," Kuroo says.

Lev moves.

 

\--

 

Armed with Hinata's schedule, Lev has much better luck finding him.

"Lev? What are you doing here?" Hinata asks, bewildered.

The staying-hidden part, which is what Lev is pretty sure is required to make this spying thing successful, is not going so well.

"Hinata!" Lev answers loudly. "I didn't know you were here!"

"Um. It's my lit class," Hinata says.

"That's so weird," Lev says.

Hinata raises his eyebrows and waits for something.

"Well, uh," Lev says, and then sees a girl he recognizes in the corner of his eye. "I've gotta go! Haruka, hey!"

Hinata stares at him, and when they round the corner Lev relinquishes his hold on poor Haruka and starts to apologize.

"No, it's okay," she says, frowning a little. "But what are you doing here?"

"Stalking my roommate," Lev says, and then has to explain the whole thing. Haruka laughs a little, and then she laughs a lot, but she doesn't call Lev anything mean and she promises not to tell Hinata, so Lev counts it as a win.

 

\--

 

There's a party that Friday. It seems pointless to say so – it's college, there's almost always a party – but Lev announces it loudly and then bothers Hinata until Hinata agrees to go.

Lev waves at Kuroo and Kenma, and Kuroo nods at him, and then Kenma looks like he's figured out something's up so Lev quickly hustles Hinata out the door.

"Why are you so desperate to be here?" Hinata asks, once they're safely at the first party Lev finds.

"No reason," Lev says, and sits down.

Hinata regards him narrowly. "Kuroo bribed you into giving him the suite again for tonight, didn't he."

"Yes!" Lev says. "So we're not supposed to be back again until after midnight!"

"You know," Hinata says, and there's a pout in his voice, _cute_ , "I don't think it's fair that Kuroo never bribes me. I'm being forced out of my own room too, you know."

"You should definitely bring that up with him tomorrow," Lev says, nodding, because there's no way Hinata will actually try to say something to Kuroo.

Hinata huffs and sits down next to Lev. Lev leans into him and starts talking about volleyball.

Everything goes pretty well, actually, until Lev spills his beer all over Hinata. It's not his fault, which he feels is important to keep in mind – Haruka leans over his shoulder and says, "Hey, Lev!" which is nice, but Lev jumps and flails and throws his drink all over Hinata.

So really, it's Haruka's fault.

Hinata doesn't seem to agree, since he scowls at Lev and jumps up, escaping to the bathroom. Lev stares after him mournfully.

"Graceful," Haruka says. "Usually the whole spilling-drinks-on-your-crush thing only works if you get to go with them while they strip off their clothes."

"Shh!" Lev says. "Also, I don't need to spill things on him to see him change clothes, we live together."

"Oh, well then," Haruka says, and grins at him.

"Shut up," Lev says. "What are you doing here?"

"My ex is around here somewhere," she says. "So I'm trying to pick someone up and use them to make him jealous about what he can no longer have."

"But you're alone," Lev says.

"Thanks," she says, and makes a face. "Turns out my plan isn't working too well. I feel guilty using someone like that, so I've had to turn down the couple of cute guys who have talked to me."

"Aw," Lev says, sympathetic, and then says, "Oh, no," when she narrows her eyes at him speculatively.

"Yeah," she says. "You'll do well enough."

"Thanks," Lev says darkly, and yelps when she pulls him out of his chair. "No, seriously!" he says, and stumbles to catch himself.

He doesn't escape her clutches the rest of the night; she demands his continued assistance in her own boyfriend-stalking attempts, retroactively leveraging her earlier promise of silence.

At the end of the night Hinata has escaped to parts unknown, but Haruka is back with her boyfriend. Lev is very happy for them.

"Do you think –" he says, since their scam worked so well for her, but she looks at him sympathetically and says, "No."

 

\--

 

Hinata isn't back by the time Lev wakes up in the morning. Lev clambers out of bed to look for him, but eventually has to drag himself to morning practice through sheer force of will. There in the locker room he finally sees Hinata, and ends up staring way too long at the new mark on his neck. There are _teeth imprints_.

He turns around and goes back to the suite, but only after texting Haruka.

_Hinata is sneaky pls help_

She sends back _:((((((_ and is, in general, a very useless ally.

 

\--

 

Lev tries to follow Hinata a couple of more times, but Hinata is either incredibly observant or Lev is incredibly forgetful. He usually catches up to Hinata by accident and then has to make up an excuse for being nearby, or he runs into someone and starts talking to them, and Hinata hears or sees him and then Lev has to make up another excuse.

It's all very frustrating.

 

\--

 

_i may have to give up_

_Oh no_

_:(_

_Sarcasm, Lev_

 

\--

 

"Okay, seriously," Lev says, when they're eating lunch one afternoon and Hinata shows up halfway through, wearing the clothes from last night and trying to skulk in, which fails spectacularly when he finds them all sitting on the floor in front of the TV. "When do we get to meet the boyfriend? Or – well, the girlfriend?"

"Boyfriend?" Hinata says, and edges toward the bedroom.

"No running away," Lev says. He tries not to look too sullen. "I could just follow you. So, who is it?"

"N-Nobody," Hinata says, and stares approximately at Lev's knee.

"Oh, shit," Kuroo says. "I forgot I have class."

"It's Sunday," Kenma says, looking up from his console.

"You have class, too," Kuroo says, and hauls Kenma up despite his protests.

"Really?" Hinata asks Kenma, looking oddly betrayed, but Kuroo says goodbye politely oddly and leaves, Kenma still in tow.

"Why won't you tell me?" Lev asks, and follows Hinata into the bedroom.

"There's nothing to tell!" Hinata says, and digs fresh clothes out of the closet.

"You're lying," Lev accuses.

Hinata changes shirts, dropping the dirty one in the proper section in his color-separated hamper. Lev went in once and mixed all the clothes up, just to see if Hinata would notice.

Hinata did, and his revenge was immediate and painful. Lev hasn't touched his things since.

"I'm really not," Hinata says.

"I know you are!" Lev says, and waves his hands at everything that is Hinata at this moment, in all his walk-of-shame glory.

"Ugh," Hinata says, and turns back to his closet. "Why do you care?" he asks, glaring over his shoulder. "Kenma said you've been creeping around."

"We're your friends!" Lev says, ignoring the burning resentment for Kenma that has abruptly established itself. "Why don't you want us to meet your boy-- your girl -- your datefriend! Are you ashamed of us?"

"Lev, come on," Hinata says, and rolls his eyes.

Lev sits down on his bed, looking at Hinata. He doesn't say anything.

Hinata sighs and sits down opposite, looking at him. "I don't have a boyfriend," he repeats.

"But –" Lev starts, and Hinata says, stutters out, "It's called hooking up!"

Lev shuts his mouth and stares.

Hinata shifts uncomfortably.

"Wow," Lev says finally. "You hook up a lot."

"Shut up," Hinata says irritably, and stands up to take off his pants.

 

\--

 

Lev texts Haruka, _Hinata is a manslut :(_

She replies, _I'm sorry for you. and don't slut shame!!!!!!!_

_I would never! he is though_

_I'm sorry for you_ , she sends again, and Lev chooses to accept the spirit of the words and not the sarcasm he suspects may be lurking behind them.

 

\--

 

The mystery may be resolved, but now Lev doesn't know what to do.

"You're pathetic," Kuroo tells him one afternoon the next week, when Lev is sprawled on Kuroo's bed and bemoaning his life.

"What do I do now?" Lev says. "I'm so disappointed in him."

"Whatever," Kuroo says. "You're acting weird."

Haruka is no help, either, and Lev hasn't been speaking to Kenma. "I am not," Lev says, through a pillow he's holding over his head.

"Whatever," Kuroo repeats, and then Kenma comes in so Lev has to leave.

 

\--

 

_my roommate is an asshole and doesn't care about my miseries_

_neither do i_

_you at least pretend_

_glad my pity helps then_

 

\--

 

"Okay, you're making me feel very sorry for you," Kenma tells him the following day.

"It's my living room, too," Lev says. "I'm allowed to mope on the couch if I want to."

"I wasn't being sarcastic," Kenma says, puzzled by the bite in his tone.

"Why are you moping?" Hinata calls.

Lev snorts. Of course Hinata didn't ask that half an hour ago when he kicked Lev out of their bedroom because he was 'sighing too much' and 'distracting me from homework' that Lev knows isn't really homework. "You only care when it's socially required!" Lev says, and then shoves Kenma into Kuroo's room so he can mope in the living room in peace.

"You can tell me," Kenma says, coming right back out. Lev starts to consider he might be serious, if he voluntarily left Kuroo's company for a minute to check on Lev. "Even if you're just trying to make us feel sorry for you, I know it's worked on me. If something's actually wrong, tell me."

"No," Lev says. "You turn around and tell everyone you know."

"Oh," Kenma says, and suddenly sounds like he's very amused, and not sorry at all. "This is still about that."

"Fuck off," Lev tells him, meanly.

"Shut up, Lev," Kuroo calls, and Kenma shakes his head at Lev before trailing back into Kuroo's bedroom.

 

\--

 

_srsly they all hate me_

_No they don't. and why do you keep texting me?_

_you don't mind_

_only because it makes my bf jealous and that makes him pay attention to me_

_see!! you have issues too!!!_

Haruka doesn't deign to answer, but Kuroo says, "Stop accidentally texting me."

Lev resends the text, just to piss him off. Kuroo replies, _fuck off_.

 

\--

 

Hinata very specifically asks Lev to come to a party with him that weekend. Lev says, "Yeah!" and falls all over himself hurrying to get up and look presentable, since he knows Hinata has standards about these things and is definitely not above abandoning Lev to the tender mercies of Kuroo and Kenma and their exhibitionism if he isn't ready to go when Hinata wants to leave.

They end up at a dorm party a couple of blocks away from the athletes' dorm. There's a guy there who Kuroo's friends with, who's been over once or twice and knows all of them. Hinata sidles away before Lev notices, and Lev is left arguing with him about whether Ana is a better support than Lúcio. By the time they've exhausted that topic they both start looking for means of escape, and the guy recognizes a girl over in the hallway. Lev is left at odd ends, and he starts looking for Hinata.

It's not that difficult to find him - he's in the kitchen, tucked into a corner, making out with a guy Lev has never seen before. Hinata has his eyes closed and they're both completely ignoring the half a dozen other people who are also in the kitchen

Lev stares at them until someone bumps into him, knocking him sideways and back out into the living room.

"Why are you back?" Kuroo asks, displeased, when Lev stumbles into the dorm.

"Uh," he says. "I just saw Hinata making out with some dude."

"So?" Kuroo asks impatiently, but Kenma starts laughing.

"Oh no," he says.

Lev glares at him. "I don't know why everyone thinks you're the nice one."

"Well, there's no one else. Hinata certainly isn't," Kenma says.

"Hinata is nice!" Lev protests instinctively, then retreats to his bedroom. But Hinata isn't nice, really. Hinata spends mornings ignoring him at practice and brings Lev to parties and then abandons him to make out with the first halfway cute guy who walks by. Hinata is actually very mean, and a bad friend to boot.

Lev is stewing by the time Hinata comes back. Normally this wouldn't be a problem - Hinata stays out until forever, and Lev, on the rare occasions he is mad about something, usually doesn't have to see him until long after he's gotten over whatever pissed him off.

But this one time, of course, Hinata has to decide to come back early. He shows up less than twenty minutes later, and it's an unpleasant surprise when he opens the door to their bedroom and Lev comes face to face with him.

"You left," he says, and Lev glowers.

"You noticed!" Lev says.

"What?" Hinata says, frowning.

"Ugh," Lev says. "Go away. Go make out with someone."

"Seriously?" Hinata says. He sounds amused.

"Seriously," Lev says. "I don't care. Just don't bring me along when you're going to ditch me to suck face with your newest acquaintance."

"I didn't ditch you!" Hinata says. "You're the one who left."

"Because I didn't want to watch you hook up again!" Lev says.

"So I should be celibate because you're a prude?"

"No," Lev says stubbornly. "You just shouldn't go around kissing everything."

"First of all," Hinata says, frowning. "I don't. And second, since I apparently need your approval, who should I kiss?"

"Me!" Lev says, and kisses him.

Hinata kisses back, pulling him closer. Lev sort of loses his train of thought, so when Hinata finally pulls away and says, "I should make out with you?" Lev says, "Good idea," and goes back to the kissing.

 

\--

 

_success!_

_I'm happy for you. will you stop texting me now?_

_you'd miss me_

_Whatever. what finally worked?_

_idk i just saw him making out with another person and then i left and he followed me and then we made out_

_so he found out you were jealous_

_omg what if he doesn't want to date me :(((_

_I don't give a fuck who wants to date you, Lev_ , Kuroo's response says.

 _fuck off_ , Lev sends back.

Haruka is more helpful. _He wants to date you. its like what we did with my bf_

_?_

_God you're an idiot_

 

\--

 

"Who's Haruka?" Hinata asks sleepily, rolling over and shoving his head under Lev's face.

"Nobody," Lev says hurriedly, dropping his phone onto the floor.

Hinata frowns and cranes to look at him. "Isn't she that girl from my lit class?"

"It's a long story, okay," Lev says feebly.

Hinata smiles. "Did you make a friend while you were stalking me?"

"Yes," Lev says solemnly, trying really hard not to just molest Hinata. "She's very dear to me."

"Good thing you like me, then," Hinata says, and yawns.

"Oh my god, she's right," Lev says, and sits up. "You were trying to make me jealous."

"No," Hinata says, and doesn't even pretend to start waking up. He buries his head deeper into the pillow. "I really wasn't."

"You weren't?" Lev repeats, sadly.

"No," Hinata says, "But at least you had fun while you thought I was. Now would you please go back to sleep? I don't even think it's dawn yet."

"It's not," Kuroo calls irritably through the door. "So feel free to shut the fuck up."

Hinata sighs, and Kenma's muffled sleepy scolding is barely audible, though Kuroo's grumbling is still pretty loud.

"Feel free to eavesdrop like a creep!" Lev calls back, and then Hinata drags him back down. Going by the muffled yelp from the other room, Kenma probably did the same to Kuroo. Lev grins at Hinata from about two inches away. "So that means you're not just using me now, right?"

"Yes, Lev," Hinata says. "And you can ask me any more questions, in as much detail as you want, in the morning."

 

\--

 

_!!! you're a genius!_

_Awesome. you should keep me updated_

_you DO love me_

Kuroo yells, "I fucking do not," and throws an empty can of beer at Lev's head.

"Oops," Lev says loudly, and resends the text to Haruka.

"How do you keep accidentally texting Kuroo?" Kenma asks. "His name shouldn't be anywhere near hers in the contact list."

Hinata snorts and says, "It's not on accident. Lev thinks it's funny."

"It kind of is," Kenma says, thoughtfully, and Kuroo makes a despairing noise, just as Haruka sends back, _Again with the missing the sarcasm_.

Lev grins and taps out _< 3_ and makes sure to send it to every number in his phone.


End file.
